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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1160.PDF
248 FLIGHT, 23 August 1951; CIVIL AVIATION VISCOUNTS FOR INDIAT HE first of Indian Airlines Corporation's fleet of ten Viscountswas last week formally handed over to the High Commissioner for India, Mrs. Pandit, by the chairman of Vickers, Lord Knollys.The ceremony, which was performed at Wisley Airfield, marked the tenth anniversary of India's independence.Delivery of I.A.C.'s Viscount 768s (Dart RDa.6 Mk 510s) will start in September, when the first aircraft (VT-D10) will be ferriedout to New Delhi; the order should be complete by April next year. The airline hope to start Viscount services between Delhiand Calcutta, Calcutta and Rangoon, Bombay and Delhi, and Bombay and Karachi in mid-October. Expansion of the servicesto include Hyderabad, Bangalore, Madras and Colombo will be made during 1958. . . . AND FOR COLONIAL COACH AFTER five years of developing their Safari services with Vikings,L Hunting-Clan and Airwork are to take advantage of the recom- mendations of the Air Transport Advisory Council (see Flight,July 5,1957) to introduce Viscounts on their Central African Safari Service—probably in early October. The East African ViscountSafari service should be introduced shortly afterwards. Rival claimants to be the first operators of Viscounts on colonial-coach services are Central African Airways, who are to use Vis- counts on their weekly Zambesi service to London. NEW STARS IN THE POLAR FIRMAMENT THE polar routes are becoming busier. Civil Aeronautics Boardapproval for PanAm and T.W.A. to start over-the-top flights between Europe and California has resulted in almost simultaneousannouncements from the rival U.S. flag carriers of new services from London and Paris to Los Angeles and San Francisco.B.O.A.C., whose right to offer competitive services on the trans- polar route to San Francisco is of course agreed in principle, are,meanwhile, still bedevilled with equipment problems. Their DC-7Cs—the only aircraft in the fleet with sufficient range—are heavily engaged in restoring the Corporation's share of North Atlantic traffic; and not until the Britannia 312s come along couldthe Corporation contemplate wresting trans-polar traffic from the U.S. airlines. Even then, such is the need for the 312s on theAtlantic, that the advent of B.O.A.C. polar flights may have to be delayed until 1960 when their 707s are delivered. The larger share of the polar Europe to West Coast route—fourDC-7C services a week—goes to PanAm, who will inaugurate one- stop schedules on September 11. They will operate from Londonto Los Angeles and then on to San Francisco, London to Seattle and San Francisco, and Paris to Los Angeles and San Francisco.A fuelling stop in each direction will be made at Frobisher Bay, Baffin Land, although there is a possibility of non-stop operationson the eastbound run. A direct service to Portland, Oregon, will be started later in the year. T.W.A. will begin operation of two weekly mixed-class L.1649AJetstream services—one from London to San Francisco and Los Angeles and one from Rome to Paris, San Francisco and LosAngeles—on September 30. They also will refuel at Frobisher Bay, although various other alternatives may be used. In any case,the chances of achieving non-stop operation are sufficiently good to warrant the Jetstreams carrying two complete crews on east-bound flights; if the weather is reasonably good and the payload does not exceed 60 or 70 per cent, a stop at Frobisher Bay torefuel and to slip a crew would not be necessary. Even one-stop polar services between London and the WestCoast reduce the present point-to-point times by about three hours. PanAm's service to Los Angeles will take 21 hr andT.W.A.'s service to San Francisco 21 hr 5 min, and to Los Angeles (including the San Francisco stop) an elapsed time of 23 hr 42 min.The return trip will be timetabled to take 19 hr 10 min, but this would be reduced when the flight was made non-stop. B.E.A. CURTAIN-RAISER NEARLY ten years after the interruption of direct flights fromLondon to Prague, services will (as already foreshadowed) be resumed on October 6. Final arrangements were being made inPrague last week by a B.E.A. team of 15 officials led by Mr. A. S. Johnson. The Corporation will operate Viscounts on the 650-mileroute between the two capitals and Czechoslovak Air Lines will operate a similar service with Il-14s, although there is a strongpossibility that Tu-104As will later be used. The latter aircraft are to operate on C.A.L.'s new routes to Cairo, and Damascus viaBeirut, in November, the only direct connection between Czecho- slovakia and the near East is at present provided by Air-India, whofly a weekly service between Prague and Cairo. HONG KONG AND NORTHWEST ONE of the traffic rights sought by the U.S. during the abortiveroute talks held in London recently was the right for North- west Airlines to operate into Hong Kong. Until August 1—whenthe arrangement was cancelled—Northwest did, in fact, operate into Hong Kong through a charter arrangement with Hong KongAirways, by which H.K.A. aircraft were used on the Tapei-Hong Kong and Manila-Hong Kong segments of Northwest's routesfrom Tokio. Cancellation of the seven-year-old charter agreement was made by Hong Kong Airways immediately before the in-auguration of a Viscount service between Tokio and Hong Kong via Tapei. Northwest are now reported to be seeking a new charteragreement with Cathay Pacific Airways, the British independent airline based in Hong Kong. GHANA AND K.L.M. A PLAN for a jointly operated airline company for Ghana has•'*• been proposed by K.L.M. The Ghana Minister of Com- munications, Mr. Krobo Edusei, said earlier this month thatthe Dutch airline had proposed that they should form with the Ghana Government a joint company to operate direct ser-vices between Ghana arid the United Kingdom and other Euro- pean countries. K.L.M.'s interest would extend to the expan-sion of Ghana's aviation and the training of ground and air crews of Ghana nationality. Hunting-Clan have also placed air-service proposals before theGhana Government, but no details have yet been revealed. Ghana's reactions have not so far been obtained. THE AIR LEAGUE AND AIR TRANSPORT (continued from page 243) the C.A.B., "but without the complicated legal procedures of the latterbody." A new Board should be composed of four or five persons highly qualified in air transport but unconnected with the Corporations or theindependents. It would be non-political and unaffected by changes of government. This Board should be charged with the issue of licencesfor the operation of particular routes by particular operators in a manner apparently similar to that of the C.A.B.. "The establishment of sucha Board would be a major reform which, coupled with the principle of partnership between the Corporations and the independent operators,should lay the foundations for the necessary expansion of British air transport in the coming years." The report also has this to say about the supreme direction of Britishair transport: "Some single authority of senior Cabinet Minister status should be charged as his prime task with the co-ordinated developmentof British civil aviation, and whether that single authority be the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation or some other minister we urge stronglythat any other functions ascribed to him should be secondary to the task to which we refer. Such an authority would be responsible for seeingthat all the essential elements combine to produce the maximum of drive and efficiency, with the sole and concentrated object of placing thiscountry in the position in world air transport which it ought to have, so reversing the downward trend of the past few years." The report sees no reason to doubt the accuracy of Lord Douglas'estimate (in his Brancker Memorial Lecture) that between now and 1970 there remains an unfulfilled market worth £5,500 million. "This affords some idea of the prize which awaits the countrywhich can produce, and produce quickly, transport aircraft of advanced design and proved reliability." The committee recom-mends strongly the establishment of a Government-sponsored Proving Unit to carry out development flying on "selected" trans-ports. An organization similar to that at Boscombe Down is visualized, with representatives of manufacturers and R-A.F-, aswell as civil crews, participating to offer the customer fully developed and tested aircraft of guaranteed performance and costs."Development work on new types should not be left entirely to manufacturers, the operators, or the R.A.F., but should be a jointeffort." As examples of the sort of aircraft which could be developedfor the future, the committee cite a large cargo transport and a supersonic airliner. It foresees the need for a very large, 500 m.p.h.cargo machine with a 3,000-4,000 mile range, to operate at half the current cargo rates. A bolder venture might, says the report, bethe long-term development of a nuclear-powered cargo carrier. With regard to the supersonic airliner, the committee feels thatthis is an opportunity to make a great advance in world aviation by "reaching out into the future . . . instead of producing some-thing only a little better than the coming generation of American airliners." (See photograph of model on page 243.)
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